Home Secretary appoints former chief constable to conduct independent review into police management of registered sex offenders in the community
Today the Home Secretary Priti Patel has appointed Mick Creedon, Former Chief Constable of Derbyshire Constabulary, to undertake the independent review which was a promise set out in the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy (2021).
Mr Creedon has over 37 years’ experience in policing, counter-terrorism and security, and will be taking up the post imminently.
The review will consider the consistency of the management of registered sex offenders across England and Wales, and whether the current capabilities to manage them are fit for purpose. It will specifically look at how consistently the police use their capabilities to manage the risk posed by registered sex offenders and whether the regime protecting the public from them could be strengthened further.
The review, which is independent of government, will consider evidence in relation to factors including (but not limited to):
police resourcing
consistency of offender management
information-sharing
management tools and orders
risk assessment, management, and prioritisation
training
Home Secretary Priti Patel said:
“The UK has some of the toughest powers in the world to deal with sex offenders and we are committed to ensuring that the system is as robust as it can be.
“Mick brings a wealth of policing and criminal justice expertise to this role and I am delighted he has agreed to chair the review.”
On taking on this role as the independent reviewer, Mick Creedon said:
“I’m really pleased to be offered the opportunity to lead this review on behalf of the Home Secretary. The question of how the police best manage offenders released from custody but rightly subject to restrictions is a complicated one. The public deserve protection, and at the same time the demands on the police service continue to grow. I intend to gather as many views as possible, to work with those leading and involved in this work, and will seek to provide a fully independent review and realistic proposals to ensure the longstanding MAPPA arrangements provide the best protection for the public, and the effective monitoring and management of offenders living in the community.”
The review will be undertaken in line with the Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Strategy (2021) which aims to prevent, tackle and respond to all forms of child sexual abuse, while also building on the findings of the government’s end-to-end review into the criminal justice response to rape (2021). It will commence imminently and will aim to report back to the Home Secretary, Safeguarding Minister and Crime and Policing Minister by the end of this year.